


ink and shadows

by PrinceDarcy



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Season 2, Short One Shot, Tattoos, Willdigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 10:20:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1547180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceDarcy/pseuds/PrinceDarcy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The black tendrils that spread over his back were his. And they made him feel alive.</p><p>Drabble written for my RP blog. Will with tattoos is my favorite thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ink and shadows

He could call his decision neither planned nor impulsive; it was both and neither, something that he knew he wanted to do - to make his outside match his inside, to visualize what he saw behind his eyes somehow - and something that he never in his life thought he’d actually follow through on.

It took three four-hour sessions, on weekends and days he had a break from Jack Crawford. The artist, bless her, helped him figure out just how to draw out the inkblot antlers that burst from his back in his dreams, made a design for him that was black and morbid and perfect when all he had to show her was a sketch he’d done in the middle of the night. He’d wanted to go small when he first thought about it, maybe just something between his shoulder blades, but once the image started to gain life he knew it had to be every bit as imposing as what he imagined, covering the entire top half of his back and branching out onto his arms and over his collarbones.

He’d never gotten a tattoo or anything even remotely like it before, but he welcomed the pain like an old friend. It felt like the dreams did, felt like what woke inside him finally had voice. Personality.

It burned when he laid on his back, a constant reminder these stag’s antlers were real. He popped Aspirin like in the old days to get to sleep, to stop himself from flinching when he moved wrong, and the poeticism to it, the fact that he could be making conversation with Jack or eating at Dr. Lecter’s table while his clothes hid a beast, was unexpectedly exhilarating.

The black tendrils that spread over his back were his. And they made him feel alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Will's tattoo looks like this: https://31.media.tumblr.com/166d7f523b769f17a9a11db2ce19cebe/tumblr_n4trqxko4T1tu13wco1_1280.png


End file.
